Conergy, Germany’s fourth largest PV company, expects construction to begin in the second-quarter of 2011, and will have 18 months to complete the projects for an unnamed local investor.
The arrays will range from 1MW-4MW in size, with the final planning permits expected shortly.
The deal represents a major step for Conergy’s push into Greece, and the Greek PV market itself – which has long been touted for its potential, but has not yet lived up to expectations.
“In terms of maintaining and expanding our market leadership in Greece, this is the most important milestone to date,” says Dieter Schmitt, head of Conergy Greece.
Schmitt says Conergy will supply the arrays “almost exclusively” with its own modules, inverters and mounting systems.
Greece maintains one of the highest solar feed-in tariffs in Europe – ranging from €0.45-€0.50 per kWh – but the country’s notorious regulatory red tape has hampered progress.
Greece intends to raise the share of renewables in its overall energy mix to 18% by 2020, and has made the PV sector central to its economic redevelopment plans.
Conergy bounced back to profitability in the second quarter of 2010 after swallowing a string of losses sparked by the financial crisis. The firm boasts a module capacity of 250MW at its Frankfurt factory, but is increasingly focused on downstream project development.
Chief executive Dieter Ammer says the Greek deal demonstrates the success of two of the pillars of the company’s turnaround strategy: building entire PV systems, and pushing beyond the German border.
Conergy now generates nearly half of its sales outside Germany, and expects that figure to rise sharply in the coming years.